The Virgin Islands Senior National Squash Team competed in the Senior Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) Championships held in Guyana from August 18 – 24. This was the first time that the VI was able to compete as a nation as previously the territory had to join forces with other Eastern Caribbean Nations to form an OECS Team. VI finished 5th out of the 8 competing Caribbean Nations with Joe Chapman, Mike Adamson, and Neville Sorrentino placing third in their individual events.
The Women’s team comprised Zoe Sorrentino, and CASA debutants Natalie Fay and Nicole Toppin.
Chapman, Dion Anselm, Jonathan Addo and Tony Campbell made up the Men’s team with Addo and Campbell competing in their first CASA event.
Adamson (Men’s Over 40), Sorrentino (Men’s Over 50) and Winston Findlay (Men’s Over 60) formed the Veteran team. Adamson and Sorrentino finished 3rd in their respective events with Findlay narrowly missing out on a top 3 finish after a 3-2 loss in his final match.
CASA Individual Event:
Chapman, Anselm, Addo, Zoe Sorrentino, Fay and Toppin, who all participated in the Individual event, fought well against strong opponents but only Chapman managed to progress past the 1st round.
Chapman, winner of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Men’s Plate, played some focused and professional squash to navigate his way through to the semi final of the main draw where he faced 8-times CASA champion, Chris Binnie. Chapman played well and pushed Binnie hard but the Jamaican team player eventually proved too strong an opponent and ran out a 3-0 winner. Binnie impressively went on to win the event without dropping a single game. Chapman was awarded 3rd place due to the withdrawal of his opponent (who Chapman beat in the team event).
Sorrentino put together a great run in the plate event in which she narrowly lost out in the semis to the eventual plate winner.
Men’s Doubles Event:
Adamson and Anselm lost out to the 1 seeds from the Cayman Islands 11-7, 11-7 (the doubles is played as best of 3). Both men played excellent squash in a fast and furious match, and were very close to stealing a game. It was only a few unforced errors at the end of the games that prevented a win becoming a reality.
“Overall it was a great performance against a very accomplished pairing,” said Murrills.
Mixed Doubles Event:
Neville Sorrentino and Zoe Sorrentino caused a stir as the only father/daughter pairing in the event and also due to having the biggest age differential between teammates!
Playing against Trinidad’s male and female no.1 players was always going to be a tough match. With Doubles being an exceedingly fast game, the Sorrentino duo lacked a little composure in the 1st game but played a much better 2nd. Unfortunately, at 7-7, Zoe got hit exceedingly hard by a drive by the opponents’ male player which halted the momentum that the Sorrentinos had. The two however went on to string together several solid points and closed out the match 3-0.
Points gained in the 6 events – Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles, Mixed Doubles, VETS Team, Men’s Team, Women’s Team – provide an overall standing at the end of the tournament.
“All our players can be proud of some fantastic performances and for the effort and team spirit they showed throughout,” said Murrills. “This year has really helped show us all the level that we’re aspiring to and I’m confident that the standard on island will improve and that we will bridge the gap to the strongest nations (Guyana and Barbados) over the coming years. With youngsters coming through our junior programmes who are improving very quickly, this again only serves to strengthen our future teams.”
